I had the recent misfortune of having school canceled for the day and found myself with nothing to do. After eating copious amounts of greasy breakfast food, I sat down to make my first crack at a deck for the standard format. This is exciting for a couple of reasons. 1) I haven’t had much time to sit down and build in a while. 2) It may be possible that maybe… juuuuust maybe… Jund MIGHT not be the end-all be-all of the format anymore. 3) The first few weeks after a new set has been released is EXCITING! The people who aren’t so lazy as to wait for the results of the next big event are out to try creative, daring and fun new card interactions and decks. In a lot of ways, it’s like going to school and playing show-and-tell with all the rest of the kiddies who are every bit as excited as you are.
This evening, I opted to bring my own version of my *favorite* timeless classic, UW control. This particular deck featured the new and highly-coveted Jace, the Mind Sculptor, as well as Baneslayers and Sphinx of Jwar Isle. In addition to Jace, more card advantage could be had through Treasure Hunt and a singleton Mind Spring. I also ran a heavy counterspell suite consisting of multiple copies of Cancel, Negate and Essence Scatter, as well as a full set of Day of Judgement. Also featured were a number of the new UW manlands, Celestial Colonade. After game one, I would gleefully reach for my sideboard for a stack of Spreading Seas and Calcite Snappers. The Snappers are fantastic against aggro decks and Jund builds, and the Spreading Seas had proven themselves to be exceptionally useful against 3-color decks (Grixis Control et. al) and decks with manlands. So after shuffling up, it was time for round one…
Round 1: UW Ctrl (Larry)-1 vs. UW Ctrl (Dirty Ginger)-2
Ah, the mirror match! Most unwelcome, but harldly unanticipated. I was paired up against my good friend and fellow author Jay. Game 1 began with Jay on the play leading with main deck Calcite Snappers, forcing Judgements and Essence Scatters from my hand. I managed to stick Jace early on and held control of the game for quite some time, but a timely and sizeable Mind Spring from the opposition yielded enough threats to put me out.
Game 2 was less of a contest for the opposition. Jace comes online on my side on turn 4, followed by Baneslayers on turns 5 and 6. One gets path’d, but her sister goes the distance under the protection from the Mind Sculptor.
Game 3 gave Jay a turn-two Luminarch Ascension which went active in a timely fashion. Even after enchanting his first set of white sources (incl. one colonade) with two Spreading Seas, I was unable to produce an O-ring until after the ascension had gone active and spat out three angels. By the time I had regained conrol, I managed to wrath and o-ring the ascension, but was taken out by a 2nd colonade boosted by Elspeth.
Round 2: UW Ctrl (Larry)-1 vs. Grixis Ctrl (Joe)-1
Round two saw me play against another favorite deck of mine, Grixis control. Game 1 is close, with Jace making multiple appearances on both sides. His deck also features main deck Calcite Snappers. It isnt’ long before I begin to lament over relegating mine to the sideboard! In the end, he draws more cards than me, casts Cruel Ultimatum and wins.
Game 2 is better for me. I cast Spreading Seas on his first two red and black sources on turns 2 and 3, stick Jace on turn 4 and guard him long enough to get him to 13 loyalty and draw a concession from my soon-to-be decked opponent.
Game 3 is brief, in that it went to time (game 1 was hard-fought and had taken a long time). He summons a Snapper and a Malakir Bloodwitch, but is unable to finish me off.
Round 3: UW Ctrl (Larry)-2 vs. RW aggro (Brown Man Tit)-0
Game 1 sees BMT with a pair of Kor Firewalkers and a couple of Hellspark Elementals. He manages to get me to 1 life before I send out Jace and stabilize with a Baneslayer.
Game 2 proceeds in much the same fashion as game 1, in that Rodney brings me to three life and even blows up all of my lands via Ajani Vengeant before running out of gas. I stocked up on lands the turn before the world ended, via a timely Treasure Hunt, and quickly cast two successive Spreading Seas on BMT’s only two red sources. Jace came out on the next turn, followed by a Baneslayer backed up by multiple negates and PtE’s in hand.
Top 4: UW Ctrl (Hunter Burton)-2 vs. WBR Allies (Josh)-0
Game 1 was not much of a game. DoJ, PtE and multiple O-rings take care of his attackers and Jace comes out to keep his higher drops returning to his hand until I manage to deal with them permanently. With the treat neutralized, a colonade goes the distance.
Game 2, he boards in duress and sees one on turn 3 with the only targets are double cancel (can’t touch the 2x BSA in my hand). He gets an aggressive start with three or four allies, including the one that acts as a bushwhacker, along with some early pressure from Vengeant and Elspeth. In my two turns to do so, I draw a Judgement and cast it, leaving him with one card in hand. I drop Baneslayers in the next two turns, followed by a Sphinx of Jwar Isle. Good Game.
The finals saw me paired against Jay again, but rather than suffer through the mirror match and decide games on a die-roll, we opt to split and go home. The event was relatively small, but had a good amount of decks that had been under-represented in our meta prior to the release of Worldwake. I’m curious to know if Grixis Control is any better than UW now. I believe that Jace decks are a force to be reckoned with, and keeping him in play for at least two turns often means winning that game. My teaching responsibilities keep me in on Wednesday nights, but perhaps I’ll be able to hit up a Sunday event some time soon before the metagame becomes too well defined and people feel pigeon-holed into playing one or two decks. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to get out and enjoy the chaos. I’ve always enjoyed the first few weeks of a new set’s release. If you get a chance to take in a few events, hopefully you will too. Also, play Jace. Really.
Super Secret Magic Blog 